Scoundrels: ABC TV Show Cancelled; No Season Two

by Trevor Kimball, November 30, 2010

Not that it comes as any surprise but ABC has cancelled Scoundrels, the summer series that was paired with The Gates (also cancelled).

Scoundrels revolves around the West family, a clan that’s had many run-ins with the law. Dad (David James Elliott) has been sent to prison and his wife (Virginia Madsen) is determined that she and their kids not follow him. The TV show’s cast also includes Leven Rambin, Vanessa Marano, Carlos Bernard, and Patrick Flueger (in a dual role).

Based on New Zealand’s Outrageous Fortune series, Scoundrels debuted to a 1.3 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic and 5.23 million viewers. While that’s certainly not very impressive, ABC was able to boast that it was a double digit increase over the previous year’s ratings.

In week two, Scoundrels’ numbers dropped to a 1.0 rating and 3.66 million viewers, a sharp decline of 23% in the demo. The ratings continued to drop in the next few weeks, hitting a low of a 0.6 rating in the demo. The season averaged a very disappointing 0.8 rating with just 3.32 million viewers.

The last episode of the season aired on August 15th and this was posted on the show’s Twitter feed, “Thanks all for watching tonight’s #scoundrels. The cast loved the finale! Hope u all enjoyed it, too! Fingers crossed for 2nd season!”

Unfortunately, based on the ratings, there was very little reason to expect that a second season would be ordered. The show’s feed recently made it official, posting, “Sorry to say guys, SCOUNDRELS will not return for a Season 2. We are all very sad, but thank you all for your loving support!” The TV show’s page at ABC.com has since been removed.

Madsen has been signed to star in Maggie Greenwald’s next film, The Art of Love, with Aidan Quinn, Olympia Dukakis and Zosia Mamet. Meanwhile, Michael Goldstein and Michael Larkin, two of the co-executive producers of Scoundrels, are developing a new show for CBS, based on the book called The Pawn, in association with ABC Studios.

What do you think? Are you sorry to hear that Scoundrels has been cancelled? How would you have liked to see it end?